News

Church to fight back with 200 new schools

John Pritchard said expansion would build on the popularity of church schools (Gill Allen)

THE Church of England is to open hundreds of new schools to spread Christian
education and confront the growth of “aggressive secularism”.

The expansion plan will also see the church offering its services to secular
schools, advising them on areas such as improving academic performance and
designing their religious curriculum. Other initiatives could include
multi-faith schools shared between Anglicanism and other religions.

The move comes just days after Rowan Williams announced he was quitting as
Archbishop of Canterbury. Speaking before Williams’s announcement, John
Pritchard, chairman of the Church of England’s board of education, said
expansion would build on church schools’ popularity with parents and their
record of academic achievement.

A Church of England report, to be published on Friday, finds that Anglican
schools now bring more people into contact with Christianity than Sunday
church worship. Pritchard, who is Bishop of Oxford, believes this makes them
ideally placed to confront secularism,